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Retro gaming – Galactic Gunners.

A busy week working on our study and with the last coat of paint added to the walls this morning and little else to do until it dries, I thought I’d treat myself to Friday afternoon off and a spot of retro gaming in my temporary geek den.

With the ZX Spectrum’s still set up from the other day, I’ve been exploring a some titles that I’ve either not played before or in the case of this one, not even heard about before. I found Galactic Gunners by chance whilst looking for another title in the archives at the World of Spectrum http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0001928 – and just can’t put the damn thing down, it’s so frustratingly good.

Galactic Gunners – 1987 – Cybexlab Software, which it such a cool name don’t you think?

It’s a side scrolling shooter that looks very similar to Skramble except there’s no depleting fuel to worry about – Good job really as you’ve got more that enough to keep an eye on instead. Level one is pretty easy but further on you’ll really have to memorise the attack patterns & location of the gun turret so that you’re be ready to strike first. Graphically, it’s pretty good, with crisp sharp colourful sprites and that infamous Speccy colour clash. Sound wise, it’s pretty basic and the tune sometimes drifts into some completely different. I thought it a bit odd at first until I realised, that these changes were activated by collecting various powerups. I’m not sure what all of them do yet, but you definitely want to pick up the round one that clears the screen of enemies and the square shaped thing that turns your ship invulnerable to fire for a short time. Heck, there’s even a few end of level bosses.

Galactic Gunners is most definitely one of those games that’ll have you swearing at the screen every time you faceplant the landscape, yet you’ll return to for one more go…and another…and another. Fantastic stuff indeed.